Flamingo Radio, named after the world-famous wild bird domiciled at Lake Nakuru National Park, enjoys a following of one million listeners from across the world who have ensured Nakuru musicians and poets are busy round-the -clock
In the first three months, they played music throughout the day because they did not have audio equipment like microphones for live broadcasts.
The duo is optimistic of securing an FM radio licence which will see them reach laager audiences and woo more advertisers.
Two young people have taken advantage of emerging information technologies to launch an online radio station covering youth activities in Nakuru.
Flamingo Radio, named after the world-famous wild bird domiciled at Lake Nakuru National Park, enjoys a following of one million listeners from across the world who have ensured Nakuru musicians and poets are busy round-the -clock
“We participated and attended numerous music and drama contests but realised that artistes were winning and carrying home many awards that were not helping them in any way
“Nakuru has many talented youths but they lack exposure,” said disk-jockey Charles Mogire commonly known as Dj Charlie.
The radio station, which hit the airwaves in November 2016, has since secured sponsorship from five local companies that pay to have their products advertised on the youth-friendly radio.
“We currently have more than five advertisers and are making between Sh50,000 and Sh80,000 which is helping us to run the station and pay our bills including rent and other expenditure like ‘appreciating’ the presenters and maintaining the radio.”
In the first three months, they played music throughout the day because they did not have audio equipment like microphones for live broadcasts.
“It felt bad to see that we still had listeners online when closing down and we wished that one day we would be able to stay online throughout without interruption ,” said Mr Joram Kimani, Mogire’s co-director who worked as a cyber café attendant before the launch of the station.
“We started without a real studio set-up as we had to work from a cyber cafe where we would switch off the computer when leaving for home in the evening,” said Mr Kimani.
The station initially only played music by Nakuru- based artistes but this has changed.
“We started by only playing local music to fully support home-grown talent. But these weren’t enough, forcing us to repeat songs. We decided to incorporate music from all over Kenya and even those by global artistes following requests from our listeners.
“We used about Sh500, 000 to set up the studio, including purchasing equipment, renting rooms for the studio and configuring the servers,” said Mr Mogire.
The duo is optimistic of securing an FM radio licence which will see them reach laager audiences and woo more advertisers.
For youth wishing to showcase their talent, Flamingo Radio does free advertisements. The station, which has since moved into an actual studio set-up currently has 15 staff working as radio presenters, radio producers and DJs.
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